19 March 2023, Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt – In the context of the understanding reached in Jordan on 26 February 2023, Egyptian, Jordanian, Israeli, Palestinian and U.S political and security senior officials met in the Arab Republic of Egypt.
The main purpose of the meeting was to deescalate tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, in order to pave the way forward towards the peaceful settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
The five Parties agreed to reaffirm their commitment to advancing security, stability and peace for Israelis and Palestinians, and recognized the need of deescalation on the ground. They also agreed to establish a mechanism to take the necessary steps towards improving the economic conditions of the Palestinian people, and they reiterated the commitment of upholding, unchanged, the historical status quo at the Holy Sites in Jerusalem, as well as the necessity for Israelis and Palestinians to actively prevent any actions that would disrupt the sanctity of these sites, especially during the upcoming Holy Month of Ramadan, which coincides with Easter and Passover, this year.
Particularly, the Government of Israel and the Palestinian National Authority reaffirmed their joint readiness and commitment to immediately work to end unilateral measures for a period of 3-6 months. This includes an Israeli commitment to stop discussion of new settlement units for 4 months and to stop authorization of any outpost for 6 months. The two sides reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to all the previous agreements between them and the legal right of the Palestinian National Authority to carry out the security responsibilities in area A of the West Bank.
The two sides also reaffirmed their unwavering commitment to all previous agreements between them and agreed to establish a mechanism to curb and counter violence, incitement and inflammatory statements and actions, which will report to the quintet leadership in April, in a resumed session of the meeting in Sharm El Sheikh. The two sides also reaffirmed their agreement to address all outstanding issues through direct dialogue.
The Parties also reaffirmed the importance of maintaining the meetings under this format and cooperating with a view to consolidating the basis for direct negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis.
PAM welcomes and supports the positive conclusions of this meeting, hosted and organized by the Arab Republic of Egypt. PAM remains available to support in any possible way the dialogue between Israel and Palestine, two founding members of the Assembly.//